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Tuesday, August 08, 2017

The odd story of the Rabbit God

It always seems to me that the historical Asian take on male homosexuality had a much higher emphasis on romanticism than much of the modern Western image of it: if you ask me, it's not like a gay pride parade featuring drag queens, men and lesbians in leather, and many guys in speedos and feathers can be easily said to be emphasising romanticism over in-your-face eroticism/fetishism. I think you still see this in Asian countries today, with oddities like straight Japanese women who are fans of young men in love manga and anime.

Further evidence of the importance of romance in Asian thoughts on homosexuality comes from this article that I stumbled across yesterday, from Taipei, where gay marriage had a sudden and unexpected legal endorsement recently. There's a small Taoist temple there, to cater for gay men:

All religions address both spiritual needs and
issues of here and now. New deities and even new religions often emerge
to address needs or during times of social change. The founding of the
Gay Rabbit God Temple in Taipei is one such example.

About five years ago (2005), a Taoist
priest made spiritual contact with the Rabbit God and decided that
should five same sex couples approach the temple for prayers or
spiritual help, he will establish a temple dedicated to the Rabbit God.

Although at that time, they did not have
specific programs for gay couples, five couples did indeed turn up. The
priest took this as a sign and officially established the Rabbit
Temple.

The god isn't very well known, nor commonly worshipped, but he is
based on an historical figure. According to the Tale of the Rabbit God
that appears in the Zibuyu (子不語), a collection of supernatural stories
written by Qing Dynasty scholar and poet Yuan Mei (袁枚, 1716-1798), Hu
Tianbao (?#32993;天保) was an official in 18th-century, Qing Dynasty
China. He fell in love with a handsome young imperial inspector of
Fujian Province, but because of the inspector's higher status, Hu was
afraid to reveal his feelings. After Hu was caught peeping at the
inspector through a bathroom wall, he confessed his admiration for the
inspector, who had him beaten to death. One month after his passing, the
story goes, Hu appeared to a man from his hometown in a dream, claiming
that the king of the underworld had appointed him the Rabbit God. As
such, his duty was to govern the affairs of men who desire men. In the
dream, he asked the man to erect a shrine to him.

As a priest, Lu
often heard complaints from homosexual Taoist adherents that there was
no god to answer their prayers. Believing one of his missions is to tend
to the needs of people alienated from mainstream society, he set out to
revive the forgotten deity.

As his research suggests, Hu was an upper
class historical figure who lived in Fujian from the late Ming Dynasty
to the early Qing Dynasty. However, according to Michael Szonyi,
associate professor of Chinese history at the department of East Asian
Languages and Civilizations at Harvard, the Rabbit God is a pure
invention of Yuan, the poet, since the image of the rabbit deity doesn't
appear in any other sources from Fujian.

While some aspects of the story may be fabrications, the existence of
the cult of Hu Tianbao in Fujian in the 18th century is well documented
in official Qing records.

This priest reckons the Rabbit God is a particularly helpful one, if you treat him respectfully:

The Rabbit God is perceived to be an affable deity, Lu said, who is
willing to assist his followers in every aspect of life. Since he works
for Cheng Huang (城隍), the City God, he has both the erudition and social
network in the spiritual world to solve any problem mortals have,
according to Lu.

Homosexuals may have an edge in the spiritual
world because, "Hu Tianbao is rather self-abased both because of the way
he died and the somewhat belittling title of rabbit. So if you are
willing to believe in him, he will be much more grateful and work harder
than other deities," Lu said.

There are several methods of
worshipping, asking for and receiving answers from this divine being,
but sincerity is what counts most, Lu said. For this reason, followers
should address the god as Ta Yeh (大爺), or master, rather than Rabbit
God. Then, those with needs can write down their names, addresses,
birthdays and prayers on pieces of paper money and burn them to make
sure the messages are sent to heaven.

4 comments:

as someone born in the Year of the Rabbit I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this association of my animal year with a sexual practice I'm not into. I tend to prefer the association with Bugs Bunny, the rabbit as cunning trickster

Don't worry, Jason, I didn't think real male rabbits have any particular reputation for same sex activity. (Sheep, I've read, can. And let's not mention bonobos.) Actually, as I commented last year when I posted about my (very memorable) visit to "Rabbit Island" in Japan, I was a little surprised in retrospect that despite vistas of scores of rabbits on the grass, I never saw any taking part in sexual activity. Maybe they keep that to burrows?